


An Unwanted Found Family

by magebirdi



Series: not quite canon [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Reincarnation, an au where an oc died and became damian wayne, and bruce wayne wants to be a dad, oc!damian is physically 8 and died when she was 14, read the first fic in the series before reading this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26232070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magebirdi/pseuds/magebirdi
Summary: Alex is used to doing things alone. Even after she gets reincarnated as Damian Wayne and is forced to grow up as him in the League of Assassins, she still tries being the loner she spent her first life as. But ending up with the rest of the Batfam several years earlier than she was supposed to in canon doesn't help with her independent streak, and it's not even like she has Robin going for her. She doesn't want family; she just wants *friends*.But her best friend in the entire world - the one she's been messaging on Discord for the past year - is someone she's never even met, and she's terrified that she's going to lose him, too. And if she did meet him, she would have to explain why she's Bruce Wayne's eight year old son instead of the teenager she claims to be.But fate has a funny way of working, and, sometimes, you don't have to look all that far to find the family you secretly wanted in the first place.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Damian Wayne & Jason Todd, Jon Lane Kent & Damian Wayne, Talia al Ghul & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne
Series: not quite canon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566853
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I've been wanting to come back to this series for awhile, but I was never really sure what direction to go in. After roleplaying as some of the characters in this au and rereading my first fic, I finally decided which character deserved their fic next: Alex. There's some complexity to her character that I was only able to hint at in Third Time's a Charm, so I'm really excited to explore that here! I'm also planning on adding more characters in, but I'm keeping them out of the description for now because I'm not sure if they'll work better in a one-shot fic or in this one. Once I make my decision, I'll update the tags for this fic and let you know in a note.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy the latest installment of my not quite canon series. <3

Alex’s dad-senses were tingling.

Calling them her dad-senses might have been a little unconventional. She wasn’t a dad. But she did have a  _ very  _ good idea when her father - note the lack of casualness - was trying to be a Dad™. And while Bruce Wayne might have thought he was going to catch her unaware, Alex  _ definitely  _ wasn’t going to let that happen.

“...Do you want to go fishing?” Bruce said, practically appearing out of the shadows. If Talia al Ghul hadn’t been doing the same thing for the entirety of Alex’s second childhood, she might have actually been startled.

A lex raised an eyebrow. She kept her eyes on the Switch in her hands; she was  _ this  _ close to breaking Tim’s record. “I have homework I need to do.”

“Which is why you’re on Tim’s Switch.”

“I can’t do the homework now,” Alex innocently pointed out. “I left it back in Jason’s apartment.” 

There was a  _ creak  _ as Bruce sat down next to her on the couch. Alex let out a tiny groan and rolled her eyes. She was wise enough to pause her game before Bruce started talking again. They had been through this routine a million times already. She  _ knew  _ what Bruce was trying to do. She wasn’t going to let herself fall into that trap. 

She looked over at him.

She should have guessed this was going to happen. She had no idea if Jason and Bruce had teamed up on this, but she should have suspected the worst the moment that Jason asked her if she wanted to swing by Wayne Manor with him. The her of a little over an hour ago was an idiot who was too easily lured by the promise of messing with her beloved Timmy. 

“We wouldn’t have to go far,” Bruce said. “We have a fish pond in the backyard.” 

She crossed her arms. “Aren’t those things supposed to be tiny?”

“Is anything here tiny?” 

“...Good point,” Alex relented. She scoffed, turning her attention back to the Switch. “Rich people.” 

There was a pause. Alex was very much aware of the fact that she counted as a rich person in this life, but she still couldn’t shake the whole “eat the rich” mentality she had years ago. It was a major conflict that she was only just beginning to address - and would ignore for the moment. 

“...I know what you’re doing,” she finally said, starting up the game again. “You’re trying to trick me. I’m not going to fall for it.” 

“I’m not sure I-”

Alex paused the game and pointed the switch in Bruce’s face. He blinked, stared at it for a moment, and then let his gaze travel to its current player. “Jason told me all about his time in Wayne Manor. I  _ know  _ you went fishing with Jason right after you took him in. You did it with James, too, and I’m pretty you’ve done it with Tim with the excuse of it being canon. Which it isn’t, by the way - I heard Tim ranting to James about it later.”

She pulled the Switch away.

On second thought, screw trying to play here. Screw trying to play at all - she couldn’t focus on the game now that Bruce had interrupted her. She hopped to her feet, ignoring the hurt puppy dog look that Bruce tried - and failed - to hide. 

She waved at him with the hand that was holding the switch; she didn’t bother to look back.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say again,” Alex shouted from the hallway. “I don’t need a dad. I don’t  _ want  _ a dad.” 

She pretended like she didn’t hear Bruce sighing after she left.

**xXx**

“Hi Timmy.”

T he boy in question jumped at the sudden sound of her voice. He looked terrible; he probably hadn’t a decent night’s sleep in over a week. The bags underneath his eyes were a good indication of that, but Tim was also Just Like That. Alex had suspected for as long as she had known him that he had insomnia. He probably knew that, too, but hadn’t ever bothered to address it. 

"What are you doing?" Alex asked, peering over his shoulder. She had to stand on the very tips of her toes and push up against the back of the couch to do it, but it was worth it. "Are you working on another one of your stalker books?"

He slammed the book closed.

"I'm keeping track of canon," he said. He turned back and gave her a  _ look _ . She just childishly stuck her tongue out at him in response. "...Also, how did you even get in my house?"

"Front door was unlocked," Alex said, shrugging. She put the soles of her feet back down on the ground.

"...It wasn't."

She shrugged again.

"You should check next time, then," she suggested. Tim let out a groan and ran his fingers through his hair. It was longer than it would have been in canon at this point, according to James, and was thrown up in a ponytail like some kind of hipster, but Tim never went off on a tangent about  _ that _ . 

Alex let out a sigh.

"You're  _ boring _ ," she dramatically said, "and a terrible distraction. I should have found Alfred next door instead."

She dropped the Switch done next to Tim, then spun around and slipped out the front door before he had a chance to ask any questions. 

When she finally came to a stop, she was somewhere between Wayne Manor and the Drake mansion. She needed to do  _ something _ with her hands - she was itching to hold a camera or a weapon - but all she had was her stupid phone. 

She pulled it out and stayed at the lack of notifications. Jason was probably too busy hanging out with James to question where she was, and Bruce was never going to get his hands on her number.

Discord it was, then.

**1:31 PM**

Lowki

_ i'm so  _ **_bored_ **

There was a pause. She let out a sigh. With her luck, Ark was probably busy with whatever he did when he didn't answer her. Family stuff, he always said. He lived with his parents, and they didn't know about his account - so he was always popping off without warning. 

**1:33 PM**

Ark

_ i thought you were spending the day with ur extended family again?? _

Lowki

_ well, yeah _

She tried to hide how excited she was that he replied. She hadn't been good at showing emotions  _ before _ she died, and being brought up this time around by assassins definitely hadn't helped the emotional vulnerability.

...Only one guy had really seen it, back then. But Charlie Greene was a strange little afterthought, and Alex barely thought of the man these days. She hoped the guy wasn't lonely anymore. 

**1:34 PM**

Ark

_ with all of ur brothers, i thought u would never get bored _

Lowki

_ your only child-ness is showing, ark _

Ark

_ in my defense, i'm probably getting a brother soon.  _

She stared down at the screen, face scrunched up deep in thought.

**1:36 PM**

Lowki

_ since when was ur mom pregnant??? _

Ark

_ uhhhhhhh _

_ since never? we're adopting, i think. dad's been talking about it with my mom when they think i'm not listening _

Lowki

_ congrats then, I guess _

Ark

_...you don't sound excited  _

**1:37 PM**

Lowki

_...i"m just surprised _

Ark

_ me too _

_ i thought they had enough on their plate with me. another kid is going to be a  _ **_whole_ ** _ mess that they're not going to be able to handle.  _

_ calling it now.  _

Lowki

_ shoot gtg family just remembered i exist _

Ark

_ oh okay _

_ ttyl  _

Alex turned off her phone screen and headed back to Wayne Manor.

...She could really use cookies with Alfred right now. 

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

Cookies with Alfred didn’t end up happening, but Alex  _ did  _ get ice cream with Jason. 

By the time she finally returned to the manor, Jason had emerged from the Batcave. She wasn’t really sure what he was doing down there. She had a guess that it was probably brotherly things with James - not that she really knew what brotherly things entailed. But before she could sneak off to the kitchen, Jason was already leading her towards the front door.

But while Alfred tended to have good life advice for someone who seemed wise beyond their years, she would take ice cream with Jason over spending time with Alfred any day. The two of them had settled into a routine. Alex  _ always  _ got mint chocolate chip; Jason always got chocolate fudge. Once their treat had been paid for, they’d run down the street to the little miniature park that was tucked between decrepit, towering buildings so their ice cream wouldn’t melt before they got there. 

Today, the park was just as empty as it usually was. Jason said there was a nicer park farther down the street, in a nicer area, too. No one ever bothered to come to this one. As Alex pulled herself up onto the little stone wall that ran alongside the path, she didn’t think about how much of a shame it was. She wasn’t even grateful for the space it gave Jason and her. She just thought about how nice the sharpness of the mint tasted when it mixed with the sweetness of the chocolate. Ark thought she was stupid for liking the flavor so much; she thought he was stupid for never having even tried it.

...She wished she could see him try it. 

“Your ice cream is dripping,” Jason pointed out.

Alex snapped herself out of her train of thought. She started to kick her feet back and forth against the stone. Once she had a steady rhythm going, she took a lick of her ice cream again. 

_ What a hypocrite _ , she thought, glancing over at him. His ice cream was dripping, too. Only Jason wasn’t staring into space like she had been - he was staring right at her.

“What?” she demanded.

“Nothing,” he quickly said.

She crossed her arms, ice cream cone dangling precariously over the worn dirt path. 

“You were thinking something,” she asked. “What was it?”

Jason looked back at his ice cream. “I...I was just wondering how school was.”

She took a bite out of her ice cream.

“It’s weird,” she said, pretending like she didn’t see that he was lying. She knew how Jason worked, and she knew how to read people. She could see how tense he was getting. The pause hadn’t helped, either. “I died when I was fourteen, so I’m right around where I was before I died grade-wise. I haven’t learned anything more since then, but it just feels so... _ off _ . Like I’m too old to be in the room, even though I can’t move up any more levels.”

There was more to her school experience, of course, but she wasn’t going to bring that up now. 

“...Were you an only child?” she impulsively asked.

Jason stared at her. “Is it that obvious?”

She thought for a moment.

“It was, actually,” she admitted. She finished her ice cream and hopped down off the wall. She pointed the hand holding her napkin - the last remnant of the makeshift meal - in his direction. “I want to spar when we get home.” 

Jason got up.

“I won’t go easy on you,” he promised, giving her a smile. 

“Great,” Alex said, smirking back at him. “I won’t go easy on you either.” 

**xXx**

She was slipping.

She held the ice pack up against her cheek, trying her best to limit the spread of the bruise she knew was going to form. Jason had been apologizing for the past hour about it, but it hadn’t really been his fault. It was her fault for not paying attention. She should have seen that punch coming. It wasn’t hard to dodge his attacks when she was so small compared to him. 

She let out a groan and fell back on her bed.

At least Jason was locked out of her room for now. He was camped out on the couch again with a book he had definitely taken from the library in Wayne Manor. Even though she was the one stuck in the body of a kid, he was acting like one. A stupid image of him in a corner in time out popped into her head. She couldn’t help it - a snicker started to escape her. But the snicker faded as she reached a hand out for her phone; Ark probably was busy getting ready for that new sibling of his. 

As she stared up at the peeling paint on the ceiling of Jason’s apartment, her mind flickered back to her first meeting with Ark.

It was a little over a year ago. She had finally managed to sneak a phone into the League of Shadows - which was far harder than it sounded. She hadn’t been sure how much of her old version of Earth’s social media was here, too, but the first thing she did was register for a new Discord account. She had tried a few different servers, but none of them really stuck. It was hard crafting a version of Alex that made sense with Damian al Ghul’s life. There had been some things that she couldn’t quite explain, and some questionable comments that made the other members of the servers avoid her. 

Then she met Ark.

Ark hadn’t asked questions. He  _ still  _ didn’t ask questions. Ark thought her random “fun facts” on fighting tactics were cool. He didn’t mind her venting about her grandfather and mom. And when she suddenly got a whole slew of siblings, he was cool with that, too. He didn’t even mind the whole getting taken in by Peter Parker-who-was-actually-Jason-who-was-actually-like-her thing - although he had admittedly gotten a watered down version of  _ that  _ story.

After all, Ark thought his online friend Lowki was a teenager.    
  
She moved the ice pack over a little.

Now Ark was getting himself a sibling. She should have been happy for him. She wasn’t really sure how to describe the relationship she had with Jason, but she felt like he was what a brother would be like. Occasionally annoying, very considerate, and overall always there for her. From the way Ark talked about how he felt like he had two different lives sometimes, Alex knew that he was probably in need of his own Jason. 

So  _ why  _ couldn’t she stop the ball of envy from growing in her chest? 

Alex closed her eyes. 

Her phone vibrated on the bed next to her.

She sighed and opened her eyes again. Checking it sounded like a terrible idea right now, but she really wanted to see if it was Ark. 

The ball, for a moment, stopped growing when she saw it  _ was  _ him.

**4:51 PM**

Ark

_ do you think we could ever meet in person someday _

Lowki 

_ ark i love u _

_ but does stranger danger ring any bells to u?  _

Ark 

_ i know i know _

There was a pause.

Ark 

_ but i wish i could hang out with u over in gotham sometime :(  _

_ i know we wouldn’t be able to meet for a few years  _

**4:52**

Lowki 

_ i didn’t realize you wanted to get away from that future brother so badly _

Ark

_ it’s not that _

_ i mean, i don’t think it is?? i just feel like no one really gets me here _

_ and i doubt my future sibling would really see me differently _

Lowki 

_ what if they do, though? _

Ark

_ do what _ ? 

Lowki

_ see you differently?  _

Ark

_...i’m not sure _

_ i guess i would force him to bring me to gotham >> _

**4:54 PM**

Lowki

_...oh _

Alex rested her phone on her chest and closed her eyes again.

...She could live with that. 


	3. Chapter 3

In theory, school should have been great.

Alex was cool. She _knew_ she was cool. But even though she had been ranting to Jason about how weird it felt to be the technically oldest one in the room, the only person in her classes who didn’t see her as a little kid was Tim Drake. And Tim wasn’t exactly the best person to be friends. He was always off brooding somewhere; with the way he was going, he was going to end up as Batman someday from the brooding alone.

Everyone else kept babying her, even when she smoked them on her tests and got the highest grades in the entire class. The teachers kept checking on her, the other students kept talking to her in the tone they reserved for someone tiny and adorable - which she wasn’t - and the other people in the school treated her like an oddity. 

So now she was sitting in class, trying her best to ignore the looks that she was sure her classmates were giving her. If she hadn’t been so sure that this teacher would catch her on her phone, she would have tried to message Ark. If not Ark, maybe Jason or one of the Gotham City Sirens. It had been awhile since she had hung out with one of them. 

...That was an idea.

They tried to keep Gotham Academy in the good part of the city, but Crime Alley wasn’t all that far away. And if she took  _ just  _ the right path after school, she would be able to get to Hayleigh and Rose’s apartment in no time at all.    
  
Alex grinned and rested her head in her hand.

Maybe today wasn’t going to be so bad, after all.

**xXx**

The alleyway was dark.

Alex knew her way around this place. She had gone on enough trips with Jason during his Peter Parker days to get a good idea of what this part of Gotham was like. But something felt  _ off  _ about this one specific alleyway, and Alex  _ hated  _ how she didn’t know what. She felt like she was being watched. She really should have pushed the no weapons rule at school - she didn’t have anything to use as a weapon.

She eyed the trash piled up against the wall.

Just as her watcher stepped out from the shadows, Alex grabbed a rusty old pipe and spun around to face them - pointing the tip of the pipe at their face.

And found herself looking at a total stranger.

The guy looked completely out-of-place in Crime Alley. His clothes were just a  _ little  _ too nice. He had to be around James’s age - somewhere in his twenties - but he had a weird look to his face that Alex couldn’t quite place. Almost like he was wise beyond his years. He didn’t seem dangerous; he didn’t have any visible weapon. And his clothes, though nice, were still pretty casual: a hoodie, a pair of jeans, and a worn pair of sneakers. 

The man raised his hands in surrender. After a moment, Alex hesitantly lowered her pipe.

“You were watching me,” she accused him.

“I was,” the man said, “but you’re making it sound like it’s worse than it is! I’m not stalking you - I promised. I was just going this way and was worried when I saw you walking alone.”

“I’m not a kid,” Alex said. She rested the tip of her pipe on the ground, just like how Tim always rested his bo staff when he wasn’t using it. The similarities completely escaped her; it wasn’t until she was thinking over the encounter later on that she realized how much she had taken after him. 

“I never said you were,” the man protested. “I just know Gotham Academy kids stay out of Crime Alley - especially when they’re wearing their uniforms.”

Alex faltered.

...He did have a point.

“So?” she asked. “What are you going to do about it?”

The man crossed his arms and mulled over the question. Alex took the opportunity to study him a bit more. She liked to hold back on it when she was around the other members of Jason’s little family, but growing up in this life with a group of assassins made her pretty aware of details. The look to the guy’s green eyes seemed genuine enough, and the combination of his freckles and almost playful messiness to his hair didn’t make him seem all that dangerous.

Still, there was something about the way that he held himself that made her wary. And even though she had noticed him right before he actually showed himself, she couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been watching her for longer than that - and she had somehow been too blind to see it. Either she was getting rusty, or this guy was better at hiding his abilities than she thought. 

“Well,” the man said, face deep in thought, “it  _ is  _ my moral responsibility to make sure a random criminal doesn’t snatch you off the street.” 

“For all I know,” Alex shot back, “you could be that criminal.”

The man gave her a smile. “Good point. But that still doesn’t mean I can let you walk through Crime Alley by yourself. Where are you going?”

Alex returned the smile with one of her own - though this one didn’t reach her eyes.

“None of your business,” she said.

“Ah,” he said, giving a wise nod. Then a look flashed over his face that made Alex falter - a sad, almost nostalgic look that didn’t make any kind of sense. And something about the look was so familiar that Alex found her walls falling down. She didn’t know who this man was or why he was even here in the first place, but she  _ knew  _ that look. Maybe she had seen it in her own eyes. Maybe she had seen it somewhere else. But the look just  _ hurt,  _ and she couldn’t stand the thoughts that it was starting to bring to the forefront of her mind.

She looked away.

“...I’m visiting family friends,” she finally relented. If he really was dangerous, she could take care of him. And if he showed his true colors at her destination, Hayleigh and Rose could take care of him as well. “You...you can walk with me, if you want. Just so you won’t keep hounding me about it.” 

She didn’t miss the smile that danced across his lips.

“Lead the way,” he said, gesturing forward.

They walked in almost complete silence for the next few minutes. The man kept trying to make conversation, but Alex didn’t give into the urge. It wasn’t until they were almost at the apartment that Alex gave into the curiosity that had been bugging her the entire walk.

“You pointed out how out-of-place I was earlier,” she said, looking at the street ahead, “but you’re not any better.”

If she had glanced back at him, she would have seen him rubbing the back of his neck.

“Is it really that obvious?”

“Your clothes make you stick out like a sore thumb, and you’re too... _ bright _ .”

She stepped over a crack in the sidewalk. She didn’t believe in superstition and a crack in her mother’s back probably wouldn’t be all that bad for the good of the world, but she still found herself avoiding the next few as well.

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” the man declared. There was a pause. She looked over at him again and found that same look from before on his face. It was even worse that the sad puppy dog look that Bruce had given her the other day. “...I came here to visit a friend. I don’t think he wants to talk to me anymore, but…”

“Why wouldn’t your friend want to talk to you?”

The man kicked a rock off the sidewalk with his sneaker.

“...He has a big family now,” he said. “I think he might have lost the time for me.”

Alex faltered. 

“Oh,” she softly said.

The man just gave a tiny nod.

“I’m hoping for the best,” he added. “But I’m too scared to even go to his apartment or his family’s house - I just keep hoping I’ll run into while walking around Gotham. Then I can pretend that I just happened to be in the area.” 

All Alex could think of responding with was, “That’s sad.” 

The man laughed.

“It is,” he agreed. He looked up at the flickering street light above them. It was the only one on in the entire street, despite the sun still being high in the sky. Alex took that as a sign that they were almost at the right apartment. It hadn’t been doing that for too long, but the light had been like that the last time she had gone to visit Hayleigh and Rose. 

She came to a stop a few feet from their front door.

“This is my stop,” she said. 

He gave her a smile.

“It looks like I did my job,” he said. “We didn’t get attacked by a single criminal.”

Alex crossed her arms.

“The jury is still out on if you’re one,” she said.

“If I was one,” he said, “then I would have been a terrible one. I didn’t kidnap, rob or hurt you.” 

“...Good point,” she admitted.

She turned around and walked up the steps to the apartment. Memories of crowding on them with Tim, Jason and James in tow flickered in and out of her mind.  _ That  _ had been a fun afternoon. She still remembered how quick everyone had been to fight each other.

She paused, glancing back at the man.

“...You never told me your name,” she said.

“It’s Wally,” the man offered. “Wally West.”

She raised her finger to ring the doorbell, but it lingered over the button.

“...Mine’s Ian,” she said.

“Nice to meet you then, Ian,” Wally said. 

When the door finally opened a moment later, she sent one last look in Wally’s direction - only to discover that he was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t even anywhere on the street when she frantically looked from one end to the other. It was like he had vanished into thin air, the only hint he had ever been there to begin with being the strong gust of air that burst by her a few moments before.

Ghosts, apparently, were something she needed to add to the list of strange things that existed in Gotham.   



	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, updating this fic for the first time since october? it's more likely than you think
> 
> i guess that's the magic of impulsively binge-rereading everything i've ever written for this au. >>
> 
> i have no idea when i'll update this fic again, but here's a new chapter !! it's a big one c:

Besides an encounter with a man that Alex was pretty sure was a ghost, the day was a fairly normal one. She hung out with Rose and Hayleigh. She made her way back to her apartment with surprisingly little criminal activity. And she even sent Tim a few texts to bug him. All in all, it was a very good day.

But then Jason decided to spring a surprise on her midway through their nontraditional dinner of scrambled eggs and home fries. 

“...Have you ever wanted to go somewhere other than Gotham?” he asked.

Alex lowered her fork and raised an eyebrow.

“Tim would have a heart attack if we moved,” she pointed out.

“Not moving,” Jason quickly corrected. “Like a...trip. A vacation.”

There was a  _ clink  _ as she put her fork down on the very edge of her plate. Crossing her legs underneath the table, she looked him over again. This was leading up to  _ something _ . But she didn’t have Tim’s obsessive amount of knowledge on DC to figure out what. She didn’t even have James’s somewhat decent knowledge. 

Jason shifted awkwardly in his seat.

“Sabrina ordered some books,” he explained. “They’re older, used ones. She’s worried that they might get mishandled if they were delivered-”

“-so she asked you to pick them up,” Alex guessed.

She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Glancing down towards his lap, she saw him methodically messaging his wrists. She narrowed her eyes. It was a weird time for him to be doing wrist exercises. She watched him switch from massaging one wrist to the other. “I actually offered to go when she mentioned it. Grimm is having a slow week, and crime has been low this past month. We could go this weekend.”

He switched wrists again.

“If you want,” he hurriedly added - so fast that the words almost sounded like a single word.

Alex mulled it over.

She didn’t really have any plans for this weekend. Tim wasn’t as fun to tease now that they knew each other’s secrets. Bruce was bound to bug her if she hung around too close to Wayne Manor. Ark was going to be busy prepping for his new sibling.

And it  _ had  _ been awhile since they had gone on a nice, spontaneous adventure.

“I’m in,” she said, leaning forward. “You just forgot to mention one thing - where are we going?” 

Jason gave her a smile.

“Have you ever heard of Metropolis?” 

**xXx**

Alex had, in fact, heard of Metropolis. It was one of the few DC cities she knew without having ever picked up on one of their comics.

(Gotham, of course, was the other.) 

But she hadn’t ever  _ seen  _ Metropolis. She couldn’t help but gape at it when the train they were on pulled into the city’s station that weekend. She couldn’t help but gape when she saw the buildings that towered over the bustling streets. Everything was so  _ bright _ . The only way she could think of it was Metropolis being like that Wally West guy she had run into earlier in the week. It wasn’t anything like the league or Gotham.

And Alex felt seriously out of her element.

Jason guided her through the streets. He was the one who grabbed her hand first. She was sure he must have come here before when he was Robin, but he almost seemed more uncertain than she was about this whole idea. Jason had always struggled with the anti-hero thing. Being in a place as bright and seemingly welcoming as Metropolis must have made him feel even more out-of-place than usual.

They could have picked up the books that day and made it back to Gotham in time for dinner, but Jason was determined to make this a special outing. They checked into a hotel room that Jason definitely paid for with Bruce’s credit card - not that Alex was complaining. They found a food cart and ate lunch in Centennial Park. They explored Glenmorgan Square. They hit up a museum on the city’s history and bought Superman souvenirs - because what else were you supposed to do in his city? As Alex looked out their balcony that night, she was sure she even saw a man-sized blur flying in the sky in the light of the setting sun.

She wasn’t sure how long she stayed out on that balcony, staring up at the sky and at the miniature figures walking on the streets down below. All she knew was that the sky was dark by the time she came inside. When she heard the sound of soft snoring coming from Jason’s bed, she knew that she had some time on her own.

Jason hadn’t ever picked up on her little... _ habit _ thanks to his time being a vigilante. It wrecked his sleep schedule so much that he either wasn’t home at night or was too exhausted to stay awake. Wandering around Gotham’s streets in the middle of the night felt familiar to Alex. Doing some midnight solo adventuring back with the al Ghuls had felt familiar to some extent, too.

But Gotham was always more like her old life.

She just hoped a stroll around Metropolis would be just as comforting.

She easily slipped out of their hotel room, placing a little note on her bed just in case Jason woke up earlier than he usually did. She wandered through forgotten alleyways and lingered in the shadows when she saw questionable people. She was sure Superman would come flying in if she got into too much trouble; Bruce always gushed about his friend Chris and how well he fit the role of Clark Kent. Even though Chris and his wife Joan were apparently parents, Chris still found time to be a superhero.

Alex scoffed as she turned the corner.

Not that the parenting was much of a surprise. Bruce basically had done the same thing. Besides, how good of a parent could you be if you always were working? The foster parents who had been busy were some of her least favorites. At least her first dad had a reason for being busy-

She walked right into someone.

Alex took a step back and looked up.

Apparently, she had just stumbled her way into a mugging. There was an intimidating woman standing before another, much meeker woman. The meeker woman was holding her purse out as a poor attempt at a peace offering, while the more intimidating woman had a gun in one hand and the other extended towards the purse.

The woman turned the gun on Alex.

Alex couldn’t help but grin.

_ That  _ was the other part of Alex’s life Jason had absolutely no idea about.

“A mugging?” Alex asked. “That’s not original.”

The woman clearly had the height advantage here, but Alex had been working with her size her entire life. She was nowhere near as athletic or mobile as someone like James was, but she moved before the woman even saw her coming. WIth a swift, hard and well-aimed kick to  _ just  _ the right spot in her leg, Alex sent the woman and her gun tumbling right to the ground. For good measure, Alex hit a pressure point and made her go unconscious. 

It was only when she heard movement from behind her that she realized she should have been paying more attention to her surroundings.

Picking up the gun with a familiarity she knew an eight year old never should have had, Alex turned to face the newcomer. She expected to see some cliche henchmen or fellow muggers lurking in the darkness, but all she saw was a pair of glowing red eyes peering out of the shadows.

Which a little ominous, to say the least.

“Are you going to join in, too?” Alex asked, reaching for the knife she had hidden underneath her hoodie. Guns were decent, but blades were what her mom had taught her how to use in this life. The former, almost mugging victim rushed out into the street on the other side of the alleyway - leaving Alex to fend for herself.

The figure didn’t move.

Acting on instinct, Alex reached a hand out to grab onto their leg. 

But she only caught air.

Narrowing her eyes, she lunged for the person hiding in the alleyways. She reached her hands up towards where the eyes were, but could only get so far. Still, she  _ felt  _ something. There was cloth in her hands. There was a body. And while one hand grabbed onto what had to be a shirt, the other grabbed onto a surprisingly thin leg. 

Alex pulled them to the ground.

The person, in response, gave a startled yelp and tried to kick her in the face. The knife and gun went skidding out of her hands and back towards the entrance. 

“Leave me  _ alone _ !” a little voice cried out as Alex and the person went tumbling to the ground. When Alex’s eyes adjusted to the light again, she saw that her opponent was a boy even younger than she physically was. He was tiny enough to be in kindergarten. Alex would have been more concerned with beating up an elementary schooler if it wasn’t for the fact that 1) his blue eyes had just been glowing red and 2) he was wearing a blue hoodie over his matching pajamas. He wasn’t even wearing shoes. 

Alex sat up.

A moment later, the boy followed suit. 

She couldn’t help it: she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“You’re a  _ baby _ ,” she managed to get out.

“I’m  _ five _ ,” the boy indignantly replied, crossing his arms. He was wearing a pair of glasses like her old ones - it brought back a little bit of nostalgia from before  _ that  _ big reveal. But while she had been convinced her glasses made her look cool and mysterious, this boy’s glasses just made him look dorky and kind of adorable.

“Five is a baby compared to me,” she argued. 

The boy gave her a frustrated scowl. 

She reached over and grabbed her weapons. He probably expected her to use them on him. Alex wouldn’t pretend that she had even the beginnings of an idea of how actual children thought, but she assumed they’d be wary of old kids with guns and knives. 

“That’s a weird outfit to be wearing in the middle of the streets,” Alex commented.

The boy glanced down. Face flushed red, he pulled together his hoodie so it was covering his top more. If Alex squinted, she could see a broken zipper.

She really wasn’t liking the feeling she was getting right now.

“Are you a…” What was the word again? Mutant? No, that was Marvel right there. It definitely had a “m” at the start of it, but it was a different word. “...meta?”

The boy froze.

“I’m not!” the boy squeaked. Alex didn’t even need to argue - he proceeded to prove himself wrong when he started floating above the ground. He gave another startled yelp and grabbed onto Alex’s arm for support. Alex, in response, dropped her weapons and put all of her energy into trying to pull herself free. 

“It seems like you’re one to me!” she shouted back. 

Was this what Tim felt like before he found out she wasn’t really eight? Alex felt like she should have been upset at herself for being upset at a little kid, but this was both irritating and anxiety-inducing. She didn’t want some overpowered child jerking her up into the sky.

“Let me go,” she hissed. 

“I can’t!” the boy whined. “If I let go, I’m going to keep flying! I  _ knew  _ flying was a mistake. But I couldn’t get out the window without falling if I didn’t fly and now I can’t stop flying and-and-”

Something clicked.

Instead of trying to pull her arm free, Alex grabbed onto his arm. Giving it another strong tug, she sent him crashing back down to the earth. The two went crashing into the brick wall behind her. Alex held him steady in her arms.    
  
“Look,” she said, “I’m not a meta. I’m not sure how your weird meta powers work. But it seems like you keep flying every time you’re anxious, so you really need to calm down. Have you ever done breathing exercises?” 

The boy gave a frantic shake of his head. 

“Breath in for four,” she said. The boy took a big gulp of air in as Alex counted the seconds in her head. “Hold it for seven. Then let it out for eight - but making it sound like a  _ whoosh _ noise as it comes out of your mouth.” 

She counted and listened.

When he was done with the first round, she said, “Do it again.”

The two of them stood there in the darkness for a few more minutes. Alex kept her eyes on the unconscious mugger as she listened to the  _ whoosh  _ start up after every eleven seconds of mostly silence. After the boy’s breathing became more normal, she finally let him go.

Leaning down, she picked up her pocket knife again - and emptied the gun’s barrel for good measure. 

“Thank you,” the boy whispered.

Alex shrugged.

“It’s nothing,” she said. “I’ve just used the same exercises before. They’re good, especially when your adrenaline is through the roof.” 

The boy gave a little nod.

After a moment of hesitation, he shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Why are you here?” the boy innocently asked. “You’re all by yourself.” 

Alex crossed her arms. “I could ask you the same thing.”

The boy faltered.

There was that twinge of recognition again. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but she knew the signs. Broken, old clothes. Signs of a quick escape. Add in strange meta powers, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was seriously  _ off _ . Who knew where this kid had come from?

In a look Alex knew all too well, the boy’s lip quivered. His eyes started to water. A moment later, he was crying and saying, “I’m really, really lost!” 

“Do you want to go home?” Alex asked.

The boy didn’t give an answer. He just cried even harder. After a moment of hesitation, Alex gave him a little pat on the shoulder. Alex was starting to realize she was  _ very  _ much out of her league right now. 

She was going to need some help.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i would say i'm surprised i actually updated this again but i was secretly planning this chapter out yesterday after i finished the last one. i just had to write the "wait you kidnapped a kid" scene. so here you go !! 
> 
> (the ending was totally improvised, though.)

When Alex returned to the hotel room with the boy in tow, it was still the middle of the night - and Jason was still very much asleep. Even the  _ click  _ of the room key unlocking the room door wasn’t loud enough to wake him. It was only when Alex stood by the side of his bed and gave him a shove that he finally opened his eyes.

He gave a groggy blink.

And then he sat up, holding the covers close to him as he tried to rub away the last remnants of sleep. His hair was a total mess; bedhead had always struck him especially hard. 

“What...what time is it?” he managed to get out. He hadn’t looked away from his bed or Alex yet. He was still rubbing his eyes. “It’s not morning, is it?”

Alex glanced at the clock on the nightstand between their beds.

“It’s 12:06,” she said. “Just a little past midnight.”

He rested his hands down on the bed beside him. “Why are you waking me up at-”

There was a  _ crash _ from near the entrance.

Alex and Jason both turned. The boy stood in front of the closed door, a guilty expression on his tiny face as he tried to hide a fallen coffee pot behind his bare feet. Jason blinked again. He rubbed his eyes one more time. And when all else failed, he pinched his own arm.

“There’s a little kid in our hotel room,” Jason whispered, voice low and uncertain.

“I’m not little!” the boy protested. “Or a kid! I’m  _ five _ . And if I’m little,  _ he’s  _ little - he can’t even be ten!” 

Alex stiffened at the dig, but she wasn’t going to give into it. She had standards. They were questionable standards. But she wasn’t going to give in and let herself get mad at a tiny, scared little kid anymore. “I brought him here.”

Jason frantically glanced between them. “From where?”

Alex shrugged. “Somewhere in the streets? I wasn’t really paying attention.” 

“You-you went out?” he managed to get out.

She gave another shrug. “I do that a lot.” 

There was a long, drawn out moment of silence. 

Then Jason slipped out from underneath his bed’s covers, grabbing onto both Alex’s wrist and the folded leather jacket he had on the ground. He looked absolutely ridiculous when he put it on over his old, faded Wonder Woman t-shirt. His attempts to straighten his hair out with his hands did little to help the look. 

He stopped when they were out on the room’s balcony - and when the door was closed behind them.

“You-you go out?” he finally said.

“I left you a note,” she said. “If that helps. I do it every time. You just hadn’t gotten back from patrolling or woken up before I’ve gotten back before now. And I know I’m the smallest one out of all of us, but I used to do this all the time and was given more combat training than anyone else in the entire group so-” 

Jason held his hands up in surrender.

“I’m not upset,” Jason quickly said. “Or, um, not upset about that? You spar with me all the time and you’re fine. I’m just upset you never told me? We live together. We’re not traditional roommates, but if we were dorming together in something like a college, I’d want to know if you did something like party every night. Because that’s what friends do…”

Jason lowered his hands and held them close to his stomach. She saw the very beginnings of movement, but then she saw something shift inside of the room. She glanced away from Jason to see what had caught her attention. 

It looked like the boy was wandering through the hotel room, eyes wide and jaw dropped as he saw just how enormous it was. He was lingering by the jacuzzi now. He reached a hand out to touch one of the knobs, but quickly pulled it back before he could actually grab onto it. Satisfied with what she saw - and grateful that he wasn’t flying again - she turned back to Jason.

“You’re right,” she said, letting out a sigh. “I probably should have told you. I’m just not good at all of-”

She waved her hands.

“- _ this  _ kind of stuff. I can tell you all about my nighttime adventures later. But right now we need to figure out what to do with him.”

Jason glanced through the balcony door. “Why did you bring him here?”   


Alex dropped her voice down. She doubted the boy heard their earlier conversation, but she wasn’t willing to risk him hearing this part. She was pretty sure little kids were supposed to be sensitive. Besides, she didn’t want him to hear certain things that would likely make him confused. Alex  _ really  _ didn’t want to explain the whole reincarnation and/or al Ghul thing to a kindergartener.    


“I found him out on the street,” Alex said. “He was wearing the same outfit he’s wearing right now. He says he’s lost. And he doesn’t want to admit it, but I’m pretty sure he’s a meta - his eyes were glowing red when I first saw him. He keeps flying every time he gets too anxious.”

“So you didn’t want to bring him to a police station,” Jason guessed. She was grateful he kept his voice quiet, too. 

She shook her head.

“That’s not why,” she said. “Jason, look at the signs. His outfit isn’t meant for going out-and-about. His hoodie is broken. It’s missing a zipper. He mentioned leaving through a window, which implies he snuck out. Add in him crying when I asked him if he wanted to go home…”

Jason’s eyes widened. They were glowing green, too, but Alex was used to that at this point. It was a Lazarus Pit thing.

He glanced back towards the boy, who was currently flipping through their TV channel guide with gusto. “You think he’s…”

“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “I just know I’ve seen things like that before. And I also know that I can’t let that kid go home until we figure out exactly what’s up with him.” 

Jason tapped his fingers against the balcony’s railing. “Isn’t this kidnapping?” 

“You did the same thing with me,” she pointed out. 

“But I knew the situation then,” Jason argued. “I knew who Talia was. I knew who  _ you  _ were. I could guess what kinds of things you were going through. What if we’re jumping to the wrong conclusions and we...get arrested? I’m supposed to be dead. I’m not even your legal guardian. This-This could get really  _ bad _ .” 

Alex opened her mouth.

She wanted to retort that he moonlighted as a vigliante. She wanted to point out that being a vigilante was very much against the law. And she wanted to say that he had never questioned the law when he decided to bring her back to Gotham. But ignoring the part about taking her to Gotham, he hadn’t really had a choice. That was also a Jason Todd thing. This Jason -  _ her  _ Jason - wasn’t a big fan of conflict. He liked being able to expect things. That’s why her being there ages ago threw him off. He didn’t know what the comics were supposed to do. And while TIm was also like that, too, Jason’s reluctance to stray from what he knew was different. It wasn’t that he was worried he would mess up canon; he had already done that.

He was just plain scared.

She closed her mouth and thought for a minute. Then she took a deep breath, reaching her hand up as far as she could so it was grabbing onto his. She gave it a tight squeeze and wondered how comics!Jason could have ever been an antihero - her Jason was far too  _ soft  _ for that.

“We have to do something,” she said. “We can’t just be bystanders. We have a power that we never had before - we can  _ change  _ things. We’ll start with him. Even if we end up being wrong and get into some trouble, at least we tried to make a kid feel safe. That’s what your whole vigilante thing is all about, isn’t it?”

He gripped the railing a little tighter. “...Yeah.” 

She grinned.

“Great,” she said, letting go and taking a step back. “Now, we need to do some thinking. How are we going to help out this meta kid? I don’t know a thing about kids. Neither of us know a thing about metas. We’re seriously out of our league here-”

She faltered when a look suddenly came over Jason’s face.

“...I have an idea,” he said.

She crossed her arms. “Why do you sound so hesitant?”

“You’re not going to like it,” Jason sheepishly admitted. “I, uh, can think of three people who would be helpful right now. All of them are back in Gotham.”

She shrugged. “So? We can just take him on the train with us when we go back.”

Jason took a deep breath.

“They’re all at Wayne Manor right now,” he whispered. Alex got a sinking feeling in her gut. Jason was right. She  _ really  _ didn’t like where this was going. “James was with the Titans. The ages are different, but he knows what metas are like when they're younger. Alfred has raised multiple kids, and the other is…"

"...Bruce," she slowly guessed. 

"He knows kids," he argued. "He raised us, too. And you know how much of a dad he is. We need someone like him right now. I was lucky with you - and desperate. We need help from someone who's actually an adult this time."

"If you add everything up, we're both adults."

Jason shook his head. "He's the one who was an adult before. I don't even know how to do half of the adult things I should be able to - I had to ask Alfred for help doing our taxes last month. And if it gets to a point where we have to fight his parents for custody, we'll need the legal help from two people who already know the ins-and-outs."

Jason had a point.

He had a point, and Alex absolutely  _ hated  _ that he had a point.

She tapped her foot on the ground, bit her lip, and tried her very best not to glare at Jason. He didn’t deserve her anger right now. She wasn’t going to alienate him over something like this - or  _ ever  _ alienate him. Friends didn’t do that to each other.

(And she wasn’t going to leave him broken like Charlie Greene had to be now.) 

“Fine,” she relented. “We’ll go to them for help.” 


End file.
